


T Minus

by adarksweetness (chayaasi)



Series: Cap-IM TRB 2017 [2]
Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Infinity Gems, Inspired by Fanart, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 14:45:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11648763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chayaasi/pseuds/adarksweetness
Summary: AU where the Time Stone de-ages Steve instead of Tony. Steve has and hasn’t lived a very long time.





	T Minus

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Loss and Hope](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11351532) by [Winterstar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterstar/pseuds/Winterstar). 



> Written for Cap-IM TRB, and STONY Bingo square 'Infinity Gems'

In all objective fairness, the last thing Tony should have done was laugh.

Everyone knows the fable of Captain America—the scrawny teenager with a heart of gold, who the serum transformed into the peak of male perfection—and Tony has been with Steve long enough to hear some of the details, usually in the dark of night when Steve is drenched in bad dreams and they lie side by side, holding hands and staring at the ceiling.

That’s the thing about living legends, the legend is usually a heroic distillation of a lot of pain. Steve’s told him about pain, which came with war and loss, with starvation and sickness, at the hands of bullies, in the pitying stares of strangers; in rejection.

“Big guys and dames and the recruiting office,” Steve said one time, from somewhere in that space between waking and dreaming. He held Tony in the crook of his arm like a favorite toy. “I remember so much laughing, but it didn’t feel funny.”

And it’s not funny when the time stone de-ages Steve into what have to be his late teens. It’s just that one moment, he was filling the Captain America uniform to bursting and in the next moment, the whole thing fell off his 4F-120-lbs-soaking-wet frame like so many dead leaves. Steve’s expression was utterly bewildered amid the pile of red, white, blue and leather. 

Tony still shouldn’t have laughed.

But he had been so damn relieved.

-

“Steve,” Tony tries again. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, you said that,” Steve says blandly, from his seat by the drafting table. He picked the place for its clear view of the textile synthesizer, where JARVIS is currently resizing one of Tony’s undersuits to fit Steve’s much leaner frame. The actual Captain America uniform is neatly folded on Steve’s lap and Tony notices him clutching at it like a safety blanket.

As much as he wants to go over to that drafting table and supplement his apology with hands and lips, Tony stays put on his side of the lab. He summons the holo keyboard, dismisses it, summons and dismisses it again.

“Can I just ask…” he starts. ”What you remember, before the time stone got you?”

Steve flicks his eyes up. He looks overwhelmed by his own casual clothes, but not vulnerable as he shrugs one thin shoulder. “We were trying to grab it in 2039.”

“Are you sure, that’s the last thing you remember?”

Steve clutches the uniform in his lap tighter. “Yes, Tony, I’m sure,” he says, exasperated. “And you know what, I’m not ashamed of this body; I never was. I just hated that I couldn’t do everything I wanted while I still had it.”

“I know!” Tony agrees in a hurry. “Of course, I do—Steve, babe, listen to me: I was there when you started transforming. Trans-form-ing. The time stone didn’t de-age you 99 years at once.”

“What?”

“It took a while,” Tony says. A few taps on the keyboard brings up footage of the lab, and Tony projects it out where Steve can see. “You actually de-aged about 2 decades each time. The first blast took you back minus twenty years. We estimated you went back fifteen years during the next event…do you get me here?”

Steve watches the video playback. The footage begins with the team clustered in the lab. They crowd in for a second, then back away as Thor carefully kneels like he’s setting something down. He and Hulk block most of the view, but an unmistakably red combat boot peeks out from behind Thor’s cape. It’s motionless.

Steve glances at the same boot lined up neatly beside the drafting table and frowns, clearly trying to reconcile his memory with the events being shown. “Is that me?”

Tony nods. “You were seventy at the time. Forty-five minutes and seven seconds later, you turned fifty-five.”

The video fast forwards. Various team members move in and out of the frame at irregular intervals. Through it all, Captain America remains unmoving as stone.

Steve gasps, finally understanding. “I was still in the ice, then.”

“You were so cold,” Tony says miserably. “I thought you were…”

He sighs loudly and dismisses the footage just as it shows another flash of light and Steve startling awake in his old body.

“I never actually saw the whole defrosting process,” Tony says, scratching the arm of his computer chair. “When you and I met, you were already walking and talking. I mean, you weren’t exactly sun kissed, but you also weren’t… you know.”

“Oh, Tony,” Steve slips off the stool, leaves his uniform behind and makes his way to Tony’s side of the lab. His gait is off, he’s swimming in his own casual clothes, but he’s all determination. He stops in front of the computer chair and worms his way between Tony’s knees, and Tony really doesn’t have to be asked twice to pitch forward and nestle into his boyfriend’s chest. It’s narrower than before and the sound behind his ribs is far from the normal, unobstructed whoosh of breath and heartbeat, but it’s there, and Tony sighs, wet and heavy.

“I wasn’t laughing at you,” he mumbles into Steve’s collarbones. “I laughed because otherwise, I was going to cry and I didn’t want Sam to see me like that. He looks up to me, you know.”

This time, Steve laughs. The sound is husky and affectionate, and now Tony feels like crying…

“Sorry I got all pissy,” Steve says. He strokes the back of Tony’s head and wanders around to his cheek. “I should have known you, of all people, aren’t that kinda guy.”

Relief washes over his shoulders, and Tony turns to kiss Steve’s offered palm. “Oh babe, I’d never make you feel bad about yourself.”

He tightens his arms around Steve’s waist. He pulls and manipulates his lover until he’s got Steve tucked in his lap and he can press another kiss into the prominent knobs of his spine. “I love you, you know that, right?”

Steve squirms, a warm and lively tangle of limbs. Tony can feel the smile in his voice when he drawls, “Maaaybe…”

“Well,” Tony grins and hooks his chin over Steve’s shoulder to kiss his temples. He blows softly at the flaxen hairs there. “Let’s see if I can’t make that a ‘definitely’.”


End file.
